Shuichi Saito
'Shuichi Saito '''is Kirie's boyfriend, and one of the major supporting characters in the manga. Arguably, he is the deuteragonist. Appearance In the beginning of the manga, Shuichi has short messy black hair, black eyes, and glasses. He dresses very formally. Over the course of the manga, he begins to appear ill and overstressed, and has intense black circles under his eyes. Shuichi usually looks either stressed, depressed, scared, or downright insane. Personality At first, Shuichi appears to be simply stoic, if not somewhat depressed and overly stressed. However, ''The Scar reveals his intense paranoia and his ability to sense, see and feel spirals in cases where no one else can. In later chapters, Shuichi appears more intense and even borderline insane, always either mumbling to himself or screaming and freaking out. He becomes almost bipolar, and develops intense paranoia, depression, and stress. In Escape, he sees his dead father's corpse in the spiral of a tree stump, a sign of spiral phobia or paranoia. He has a strong desire to protect Kirie. Plot The Spiral Obsession In "the Spiral Obsession" parts 1 and 2, Shuichi is orphaned by the spiral curse. He tells Kirie that the town of Kurozu Cho is "infected with spirals." When Kirie tells him that she saw his father staring avidly at a snail, Shuichi replies that his father was acting very strangely. Said person became unhealthily obsessed with spirals, and killed himself to embody a spiral. Shuichi and his mother became paranoid about spirals, though Shuichi didn't end up dying. His mother on the other hand killed herself. The Scar Azamki Kurotani develops a crush on Shuichi, though he freaks out whenever she comes too near him, stating bluntly that "she is a spiral." Later, it turns out he was right; Azami's formerly crescent-shaped scar turns into a spiral and eats her. The Firing Effect The spirits of the dead people whose ashes are being re-burned by Mr Goshima are seen calling Shuichi's name, screaming for help ("SHUICHI! SHUICHI! HELP US! OH, THE HEAT! THE PAIN! SHUIIICHIII!") and he hears them over the phone when Kirie calls him to say that she is concerned that her father is cursed with spirals. Twisted Souls In this chapter, Shuichi is the first person to realize that the families of Kazunori and Yoriko are cursed with spirals. He says that their house is infected and has twisted the souls of the two families. He and Kirie later try to help Kazunori and Yoriko escape from their families by train, but they are unsuccessful. Medusa In this chapter, Kirie's hair is cursed by spirals. Every time she tries to cut it off, it chokes her. Shuichi predicts this will happen before it does, and ends up being the person who saves Kirie herself from being cursed by spirals. Jack In The Box Shuichi and Kirie go to the graveyard in order to see whether or not Mitsuru Yamaguchi, who got hit by a car trying to prove his love for Kirie, had risen from the dead or not. The two are chased by an angry, rotting Mitsuru, who is furious at having died for Kirie and wants his revenge. The Snail Shuichi doesn't make any appearance in this chapter. The Black Lighthouse Shuichi doesn't make any appearance in this chapter. Mosquitoes Shuichi makes another appearance in this chapter. He visits Kirie in the hospital. The Umbilical Cord Shuichi doesn't make any appearance in this chapter. The Storm In this chapter, Shuichi once again knows exactly what is happening when a hurricane remains stationary over their town. He saves Kirie from being eaten by the spiral in the hurricane. The House Shuichi doesn't make any appearance in this chapter. Butterflies Shuichi appears again. However, he doesn't do anything very useful. Chaos In this chapter, Shuichi is seen mumbling to himself, saying that "this town is mad." He gets beaten and thrown out of the row house in which he lives by a man who is annoyed by his constant mumbling. Later, after he and the Goshimas are chased around town (or what is left of "town",) he saves Kirie and Chie from being sucked into Dragonfly Pond, the place which seems to be the source of the Spirals. Erosion Shuichi tells the others that the reason people are turning into snails because they are moving too slowly and the spiral can catch them easily. He also convinces Kirie that eating snail-person meat is safe by doing so himself. Because he has the ability to see and predict spirals, Kirie trusts his judgement on the subject of snail meat. Escape Shuichi, Kirie, Chie, Mitsuo and many others attempt to escape from Kurozu Cho through the hills that surround the spiral town. They are unuccesful. During their long walk, Shuichi sees his father's corpse in the spiral of a tree trunk. Over the course of the chapter, he states almost constantly that "it's all around us," referring to the spirals. The Labyrinth When the group come back to Kurozu Cho, Shuichi is the first to recognize the town. He is also the one to come up with the theory that the town has been cursed with spirals for a very long time and that the making of the spiral row houses was something that had been done subconsciously. Later, he and Kirie go to dragonfly pond, only to discover that it has dried up and that in its place is a ginormous spiral staircase going down several kilometers. Completion While they are going down the spiral staircase, Kirie is attacked by a spiral who wants to be taken with them to the bottom. Shuichi, while wrestling the creature off of Kirie, is knocked off the staircase and falls to the bottom, landing on a mass of spiral corpses that make up the ground for a huge, contorted city of spirals. When Kirie finds him, he tells her that she must leave him there to die and try to destroy the spiral city at the bottom of the staircase, however Kirie refuses, stating that she doesn't have the strength, and they embrace each other,their bodies twisting together like Kazunori and Yoriko's, and they die becoming spirals. Abilities Shuichi has the ability to sense, or "feel," spirals. He can predict them too, always knowing who/what/when/where/why/how the spirals will attack. He also seems to know an uncanny amount about Kurozu Cho's history with spirals. Shuichi's strange abilities to connect with spirals and know their thoughts/motives/plans have never been explained. Trivia *The name Shuichi can mean "one lord," "studious first son," or "first son of Shu." *Shuichi is the first person to be orphaned by the spiral curse. *He is also the first to realize what is going on in Kurozu Cho. *The name Saito: From sai meaning "correct" and to meaning "wisteria", the latter syllable indicating a connection to the Fujiwara ("wisteria field") clan. Category:Kurozu Cho Category:Characters